Today was another miserable day weatherwise, so some more research on the offshore wind farm saga. It's difficult to find unbiased material, and some quotes on the web make for interesting reading ...
"only 20% of the nearly £900m investment had gone to UK firms."
"In a separate boost for green energy, the Scottish first minister Alex Salmond dramatically increased his renewable energy target for Scotland to 80% of the country's electricity. Salmond said the surge in investment in offshore wind farms and a steep increase in consents for new onshore wind power and hydro projects meant Scotland was capable of far exceeding its existing target of generating 50% of its electricity from renewables by 2020"
"Analysts estimate that up to £200bn in new investment is needed to build the offshore windfarms planned around the Scottish coast, as well as the new docks, construction yards, grid substations and maintenance facilities needed to support the industry."
"Salmond told the Guardian he believed at least two but as many as six major offshore windfarms would be operating in Scottish waters by 2020, with schemes in the Moray Firth and Solway Firth the most likely to be built first."
Makes you wonder at the "consultation process".
10 months ago
2 comments:
How can such major industrial development of endangered marine habitat be justified ? Most of the material issuing from Alex Salmond seems to be focussing on job creation , industrial development etc. No-one appears to be asking if the environmental benefits outweigh the negative environmental impact. Surely this is the only justification for such large scale development in Scotland's waters.
Hello Anonymous,
A name would be nice :-)
Yes - a bit surprised that the environmental lobby aren't a bit more vocal. The overall Draft Plan touched on quite a few potential issues, and I believe each proposal has to submit an environmental impact assessment. I'm not sure the scale of what is planned ( esp. in Round 3 ) is appreciated.
It's early days for me, and I'm finding it a challenge to find unbiased information. Lots of politics at play and huge sums of money at stake ...
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